The lack of chilling hours for fruit trees could cause crop losses in Texas and much of the southeastern U.S., but Gillespie County growers are still prepping for a busy season.
Beth McMahon, Gillespie County AgriLife Extension horticulture extension agent said this could shorten the season somewhat.
“Not having a late freeze was very good, but because of the lower than average chill hours, the peach crop won’t be as strong in numbers as it has in the past,” McMahon said. “There will still be retail peaches available but the highest availability will be earlier in the season.”
JIm Kamas, who works in the Fredericksburg AgriLife Extension office, said it was the warmest winter in Central Texas in 22 growing seasons.
Most peach trees in the Fredericksburg area need 800-850 chilling hours to break dormancy and set fruit properly, McMahon said.
The area received 525 chill hours this year.
“In order for it to be a chill hour, we have to have temperatures below 45 degrees and I think we are pretty much past that at this point,” grower Ricky Priess of Gold’s Orchard said.
“The peach growers are still uncertain on how much the later cropping peach varieties will produce but there isn’t anything unusual or abnormal that can be done to help,” McMahon said.
Priess has already seen a significant drop in their crop.
“We are assuming to have a pretty light crop because we didn’t have enough chill hours,” Priess said. “We will still have about the normal amount of varieties of peaches that require fewer hours but most of the later ones we don’t have much of.”
Jamie Vogel of Vogel Orchards, has also seen a lower crop and an inconsistent ripening schedule.
“We did start earlier than normal,” Vogel said. “But we have seen that some varieties may be riper later than normal.”
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